1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an exhaust heat recovery apparatus with an embedded valve actuator manufactured by inserting a valve actuator into an exhaust heat recovery apparatus, and more particularly, to an exhaust heat recovery apparatus with an embedded valve actuator which includes a valve actuator that is inserted into a heat exchanger to vertically penetrate the heat exchanger and includes a wax sealed therein, and a connection part that connects the valve actuator and a rotational shaft of a bypass valve to allow the bypass valve to open or close the bypass path along with an up and down motion of a rod of the valve actuator.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, a vehicle performs a warm-up step and a heating step in an early stage of starting, a thermoelectric generating step during the running of the vehicle, and a bypass step when the vehicle runs on an inclined road or runs at an excessively speed, depending on a running state.
An exhaust heat recovery apparatus of the vehicle is an apparatus that recovers exhaust heat discarded after engine combustion to use the recovered exhaust heat for a warm-up of the engine and a warm-up of a transmission, or transmits recovered heat energy to an air conditioning device to use the transmitted heat energy to heat the inside of the vehicle.
When the exhaust heat recovery apparatus of the vehicle is used, a coolant can be heated using a high-temperature exhaust gas in an early stage of starting. Thus, a pre-heating time of the engine is reduced, so that it is possible to improve fuel efficiency and to reduce the exhaust gas.
The largest amount of contaminants is discharged from the vehicle at the time of idling before the engine is warmed up, and it is possible to reduce contaminants discharged from the vehicle by using the exhaust heat recovery apparatus to reduce the warm-up time.
It is also possible to reduce friction within the engine and friction within the transmission by rapidly increasing temperatures of an engine coolant and transmission oil by using the coolant heated through the exhaust heat recovery apparatus. Furthermore, it is possible to rapidly heat the inside of the vehicle in the winter time.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, an exhaust heat recovery apparatus according to the related art generally has a structure in which a separate valve actuator 4 is provided outside a bypass path 2 opened or closed by a bypass valve 1 and a heat exchanger 3 to rotate the bypass valve 1.
However, in the exhaust heat recovery apparatus according to the related art in which the valve actuator is disposed outside the heat exchanger, a structure thereof may be complicated, and a space where the exhaust heat recovery apparatus occupies may become large to relatively reduce a space where other components are disposed.
Even when the valve actuator is inserted into the heat exchanger in order to solve the above-stated problem, a structure in which the bypass valve is rotated by the valve actuator may be complicated, manufacturing cost and weight may be increased, and a manufacturing process may be complicated.
When the valve actuator is inserted into the heat exchanger, the valve actuator may be thermally damaged by the heat exchanger heated by a high-temperature exhaust gas, so that operation reliability of the valve actuator may be degraded.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.